Disable Internet Explorer 7 Command and Search Bar

Here are a couple of quick tweaks you can perform on your Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) so that you can disable the command and search bars.

Search Bar

Most likely you will have the Google toolbar or something similar installed (yahoo, msn toolbar), so you may have no use for the search bar installed in your IE7.

If you want to disable the IE7 search bar then you need to perform a basic registry edit so make sure you backup your registry first. Here is how you disable the IE7 search bar;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Infodelivery\Restrictions

• Note: You may have to create the new keys InternetExplorer\Infodelivery\Restrictions
  
• Create a new DWORD in Restrictions
  
• Call it NoSearchBox
  
• Set the value to 1
  
• Done
  
• Set the value to 0 if you want to activate the search bar again

Command Bar

If you use or have used IE7 you will have noticed that new bar at the top of the page, this is the command bar. The command bar comes with these menu choices;

• Home
  
• Feeds
  
• Read mail
  
• Print
  
• Page
  
• Tools

Some people do like this feature on IE7 and quite a few more have emailed me asking just how they can disable the command bar. Disabling the command bar in IE7 is fairly easy but it does require a registry edit so if you are unsure make sure you backup your registry before you attempt anything.

Disabling the IE7 Command Bar

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\CommandBar\

• Create a DWORD called enabled
  
• Set the value to 0
  
• Done
  
• Set the value to 1 if you want it back again